Afternoon Red Sox Delight – 9/17

Jeff Niemann (L), Jon Lester (R)

As the Nation breathes a little easier after last night’s win by the Boston Red Sox, things will go back to being a little tense as the local nine and the Tampa Bay Rays do battle in game three of a four-game set.

Today’s first pitch is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. and will be broadcast to 66% of the country, including Alaska and Hawaii, on FOX. And if you can’t catch the television broadcast, you can always listen to the game on the 2011 Red Sox Radio Network.

After a disappointing start his last time out, Jon Lester looks to rebound in his 29th start of the season. In his previous 28 starts, Lester is 15-7 with a 3.07 ERA. He’s made three starts against the Rays this season and is 1-2 with a 4.00 ER (8 ER/18 IP). He’s made 19 career starts against the Rays and is 10-5 with a 3.83 ERA. 12 of those starts have come at the Fens where he is 6-4 with a 4.01 ERA.

Jeff Niemann looks to the pull the Rays back closer to the Red Sox in his 22nd start of 2011. In his previous 21 starts, Niemann is 10-7 with a 3.97 ERA. He’s made two starts against the Red Sox this season and is 1-0 with a 1.06 ERA (2 ER/17 IP). And oh by the way, the Red Sox are .089 (5-56) against him this season. He’s made six career starts against the local nine and is 3-2 with a 3.24 ERA. Three of those starts have come at the Fens where he is 2-1 with a 5.09 ERA.

Click on the read more button below to see today’s lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the overnight and day if you’re on the home page.

Here are this afternoon’s lineups:

83-67		87-63
1. Desmond Jennings	LF	1. Jacoby Ellsbury	CF
2. B.J. Upton	CF	2. Dustin Pedroia	2B
3. Evan Longoria	3B	3. Adrian Gonzalez	1B
4. Ben Zobrist	1B	4. David Ortiz	DH
5. Johnny Damon	DH	5. Josh Reddick	RF
6. Sean Rodriguez	SS	6. Jarrod Saltalamacchia	C
7. Casey Kotchman	1B	7. Carl Crawford	LF
8. Brandon Guyer	RF	8. Mike Aviles	C
9. Jose Lobaton	C	9. Marco Scutaro	SS
Jeff Niemann	SP	Jon Lester	SP